Graphite oxide (GO) is usually made by reacting graphite powder with strong oxidants such as a mixture of concentrated sulfuric acid and potassium permanganate.1 After oxidation, the carbon sheets are exfoliated and derivatized by carboxylic acid at the edges, phenol hydroxyl and epoxide groups mainly at the basal plane.2-5 The reaction breaks the pi-pi conjugation at those sites, which can be partially recovered by either chemical or thermal methods to yield graphene.6-9 Recently, GO has rapidly risen to be a promising material for polymer composite and graphene related electronics applications.6, 9-14 A graphite oxide single layer (GOSL) consists of a hexagonal network of covalently linked carbon atoms with oxygen containing functional groups attached to various sites (FIG. 1a, b). It can be viewed as an unconventional type of soft material15, 16 in that it is a two-dimensional (2D) membrane-like single polymer molecule that also acts like colloid. The colloidal “particle” is characterized by two abruptly different length scales with the thickness determined by a single atomic layer and the lateral sheet extending to up to tens of micrometers. This renders GOSLs very high aspect ratio and nominal surface area since a single layer is essentially completely surface. It is of both scientific curiosity and technical importance to know how these atomically thin sheets assemble and how they behave when interacting with each other, and how to better make them.
Therefore, a heretofore unaddressed need exists in the art to address the aforementioned deficiencies and inadequacies.